Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
February 6, 2026
2023 ISG Staff Recognition Awards : Scholarly Communications Team announced as the Outstanding Team of the Year
On Tuesday 24th October the second annual ISG Recognition Awards ceremony was held at the spectacular McEwan Hall. The ISG Recognition Awards are intended to celebrate the achievements of the 800 staff that work in the Information Services Group. The awards are peer–led with staff volunteering their time to be judges.
With over 200 nominations received the Library’s Scholarly Communications Team were lucky enough to be selected for the shortlist. At the in person event attended by over 100 staff we were humbled to find out that we actually won the Outstanding Team prize.
Catalyst for change
The nomination was submitted in recognition of the team’s internationally recognised leading work in championing rights retention for the University’s academic staff. The Scholarly Communications Team were the architects behind the ground-breaking Copyright and Research Publications policy, which was formally accepted by the University Executive and introduced on 1 January 2022. The University of Edinburgh was the first UK university to adopt an institutional rights retention policy, and since then over 30 other institutions have followed suit, including the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, and in Scotland the Universities of St. Andrews and Glasgow, with lots more actively planning a similar approach.
A positive and immediate impact
Traditionally the copyright to research outputs, like journal articles, is signed away to commercial publishers by authors. This copyright assignation is normally a requirement to publication, and often goes against the authors (and research funders) wishes. Where publishers do not offer open access options the authors research is then locked away behind journal subscription paywalls. The Copyright and Research Publications policy allows the author and institutions to retain and assert the rights to their own work. Authors are able to use and re-use their work as they choose, granting them the freedom to share their research as they wish. This is increasingly important as major research funders – like UKRI and Wellcome Trust – now require immediate open access to research publications that acknowledge their support.
Our policy is an affirmation that the University of Edinburgh fully supports authors in their open access practices.
New trial: Jus Mundi Academic Research
Recently we have arranged access to the Jus Mundi Academic Research database, which we have until 17th November.
Jus Mundi Academic Research is a comprehensive, multilingual, user-friendly and intelligent search engine for international law and arbitration. It covers over 72,000 international law and arbitration documents, including investment arbitration, commercial arbitration, public international law, law of the sea, and international trade-law. Jus Mundi has international cases from more than 100 institutions globally, namely, WTO, ICSID, ICC, ICJ, CAS, PCA, ICDR, IUSCT, ITLOS, SCC, LCIA, ICAC, RAC, SIAC, HKIAC, Mixed Claims Commissions, and ad hoc arbitration tribunals established under the UNCITRAL rules. Commercial arbitration documents including arbitral awards are made available through Jus Mundi thanks to their partnerships with the IBA, ICC, RAC, VIAC, CEA, UAA, ICDR, CBMA, HKIAC, SHIAC, SCCA, THAC and more.
Jus Mundi is a provider who also hosts the ICC Dispute Resolution Channel, so you may already be familiar with their platform. This means we now have access not only to ICC DRL but also to Jus Mundi’s search engine + Documents on Treaties, Cases and Rules of Arbitration, and Wiki notes.
Students and staff may be interested to know there is a dedicated help center for useful information:
- FAQ on the search engine and tools
- FAQ on Wikinotes
- Tutorial videos on all products included in Academic Research Subscription.
To access Jus Mundi please visit the EResources trials page for links and usernames. Don’t forget to complete the feedback form so we know what you think!
Westlaw update: unused accounts removed
Westlaw have recently let us know that they are engaging in some housekeeping activities to ensure the University’s records are being kept up-to-date. What this means is that any University of Edinburgh users who have not accessed their accounts for more than 15 months will have their account closed. The benefits to this are that we can keep an accurate log of how many users are actively using the database and that we do not exceed the student numbers we’ve quoted to the provider.
If this happens to your account and you are still a current student or staff member who needs access, you can simply re-register your university email address on Westlaw and continue to use the platform as before. However, your preferences and saved documents or favourites will no longer be stored, so you will need to add them back into your bookmarks when you log in. To avoid losing this data simply ensure you log in to Westlaw using your account at least once per semester.
We don’t anticipate this causing any major issues for our staff or students but if you do encounter problems with Westlaw or any of our other databases, please do let us know by email.
New College Library Reopens at Mound Place
Photo of New College Library Hall, New College, Mound Place
We’re delighted to be able to tell you that New College Library re-opened on Monday 11 September at Mound Place, with access to Library Hall collections (including Reserve collections), study spaces and a range of Library and EdHelp services.
New College Library’s collections were relocated in 2020, as part of a New College site wide Fire Asset Protection project. Approximately 4 km of General Collections were moved to 40 George Square and about 3 km of Heritage Collections were moved to multiple locations, including deep storage. In August this year, library moves began to return the General Collections to their original home in Mound Place. The first students to enter the reopened library on September 11 simply said:
It’s beautiful …
While unanticipated buildings issues have delayed some collections moves, we expect that the collections in Stacks I and II will be fully available by early October. As throughout the move period, we will provide additional interlibrary loans to support access to any collection items which are inaccessible because of this delay. The move of New College Library’s Heritage Collections, originally scheduled for July 2023, has been paused while we ensure we have appropriate environmental conditions in all relevant storage spaces. We are looking forward to the return of Heritage Collections to New College later this academic year.
Further library information and opening hours at : http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-college- library.
This article has been cross posted from the October Library Updates newsletter. For more information on what’s new in the library this month you can read all articles here.
Trial access: ProQuest Black Studies
As part of Black History Month at the Library, we have trial access to ProQuest Black Studies. Developed with faculty, scholars and librarians, ProQuest Black Studies brings together award-winning content into one destination that can be used for research, teaching, and learning.
You can access ProQuest Black Studies via the E-resources trials page.
Trial access ends 15th November 2023.
ProQuest Black Studies combines primary and secondary sources, including leading historical Black newspapers, archival documents and collections, key government materials, videos, writings by major Black intellectuals and leaders, scholarly journals, and essays by top scholars in Black Studies. Read More
Working with Charles Lyell – a call for papers
Two-day workshop, 8-9 February 2024, University of Edinburgh
CALL FOR PAPERS
Contributions are invited to a two-day workshop on the life and work of the leading geologist and natural scientist Charles Lyell, to be held in the University of Edinburgh.
Building on the acquisition for the nation of the notebooks and archival papers of distinguished geologist and earth scientist Charles Lyell (1797-1875), our work towards the ‘Time Traveller’ exhibition and a soon to be launched Lyell dedicated website, we now invite papers for a 2 day workshop in Edinburgh.
The Workshop: Aims to provide a platform for persons interested in the life, work, and collections of Charles Lyell, and science in the nineteenth century, to come together to learn more of the Lyell materials held in Edinburgh, to explore how best to connect the disparate holdings of Lyell’s specimens and texts, and to consider future research possibilities on Lyell’s work and world.
Contributions in the form of a paper to be delivered at the Workshop are invited from persons working on any aspect of Lyell’s work and life, on the history of geology, or on related topics bearing upon Lyell’s writings and achievements. Contributions are also welcomed from curatorial or archival staff in institutions holding Lyell material or significant related material for an intended panel session on linking archival holdings and object collections across institutions. The Workshop will include an opportunity to see some of the Lyell materials held by Heritage Collections, and the Cockburn Geological Museum at the University of Edinburgh, and to visit the Exhibition.
Paper contributions: Papers should be 15 minutes in length (paper sessions are planned for 15-minute papers, 5 minutes discussion per paper). Please provide a title, an abstract (100 words), your title and institutional affiliation (if any), and an email address. In selecting papers for the Workshop, preference will be given to PhD or other research students and to Early Career Researchers.
Panel session contributions: Please be prepared to speak for 5-6 minutes on the Lyell material in your institution’s holdings and the opportunities it presents for further research.
To Contribute: Please send in your proposed contribution to Professor Emeritus Charlie Withers via email to: c.w.j.withers@ed.ac.uk by Friday 10 November 2023. It is hoped that the Workshop Programme Committee will reply within two weeks of this date to confirm your involvement or not.
A confirmed Workshop Programme will be available soon after this in which further details will be given on location, timings, and costs of delegate attendance at the Workshop.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Time Traveller: Charles Lyell at Work
Free exhibition in the Main Library Exhibition Gallery (ground floor),
Open from 27th October 2023 – 30th March 2024, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm
Over the last few months, our efforts have been focussed on pulling together all the work to date associated with the Charles Lyell Project, into an exhibition. It has taken a small army of experts, staff, interns, and volunteers to get us to this stage – and we are nearly there. Here is a look behind the scenes…
Getting down to writing – what will be in effect – the first major exhibition on Sir Charles Lyell was a fairly daunting task. The science Lyell is writing about was new; today it can be recognised as ecology, climate and Earth studies, but in Lyell’s time it encompassed several different disciplines – geology, archaeology, geography, conchology, botany, zoology and palaeontology. The terminology is crucial, and, still under significant debate. Working in an era of imperial exploration and expansion Lyell’s travel through the slave plantations of the American South was controversial and remains disturbing. Despite his life’s work to gather, share and advocate for precise and authentic evidence in science, Lyell struggled to accept his friend Charles Darwin’s work on evolutionary theory. This exhibition explores these themes providing an unprecedented insight into how Lyell worked to establish a science that abridged deep divides of religion, race, culture, and politics.
Given these complexities, getting the right people on the exhibition team was vital, and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with Jim Secord, Director of the recently completed Darwin Correspondence Project. As Jim says, the reality is,
“getting into the 1830s is relatively easy, it’s the getting out that’s the problem”.
Jim has contributed a wealth of knowledge and experience , selecting rare books held by the University that add context to Lyell’s life and career, including motivators, Isaac Newton and James Hutton, and contemporaries such as Frederick Douglass. It has been fascinating to see how books held within the Library collections connect to Lyell’s work.
University Library books, that have been used by students over the years, contribute context to Lyell’s work.
Robyn studies her successful trial to create a bespoke stand for the notebooks; re-useable and recyclable.
Jim and Will during ‘object selection’ day, working on choosing what items to feature.
Having completed his dissertation on Lyell’s contribution to prehistoric archaeological study, Will Adams has also been our Lyell Research Intern, tasked with curating a series of case studies, demonstrating how Lyell researched and gathered evidence to support his theories. Five display cases later, look out for Lyell as a ‘Principle Investigator’ (play on words intentional!) as he searches for evidence to support his theories on Volcanoes, Niagara, and Sea Serpents.
Will’s work has been supported by that of Lyell Summer Intern, Harriet Mack, and a crew of remote volunteers – Drew, Beverly, Bob and Ella – are are currently working to away using the digital images to transcribe notebook indexes. In the course of trying to understand them, we’ve googled, mapped, fact checked, and reached out to local people, familiar with where Lyell was working.
Notebooks are used in the exhibition to show how Lyell worked to gather evidence to support his theories.
The volunteer’s work has really opened up that section of the archive, producing rich descriptions that have highlighted previously unseen sections in the notebooks that will feature in the exhibition. We have worked to include their reflection on this experience, enabling us to shine a contemporary light onto the notebooks, and all the different hands that appear within their pages.
Team ‘Lyell Finds’ -Will, Dr. Gillian McCay, & Hattie at the Cockburn Geological Museum.
Lyell’s specimens were a key tool for him, and Dr. Gillian McCay of the Cockburn Geological Museum has been an integral part of our progress to understand how they connect to the archive. From the outset, everyone has been on the lookout for references to collection items (fed into and logged in a very lively teams chat ‘Lyell Finds’) and Will, through his dissertation, has been able to re-establish the events that link notebooks and specimens to Lyell’s work on the antiquity of man. There is much more work to be done in this area – and we hope the exhibition will encourage this.
Today Lyell’s questions are still relevant, and the ways in which he worked (not always successfully) to answer them can add to our own understanding. Travelling relentlessly, and often accompanied by his wife, Mary, Lyell spent his life putting time to work, chasing volcanoes, visiting coastal, industrial and heritage sites, exploring strata, caves, waterfalls, quarries, and mines. The resultant rich data contained in his archive transports us through time.
In working together on the project to open up Charles Lyell’s comprehensive archive, and in preparing this exhibition, we find we have walked in his footsteps – creating a network of experts and local people, and using different tools to consolidate our understanding.
Pamela McIntyre, Strategic Projects Archivist, Heritage Collections, University of Edinburgh
It’s Friday the 13th!
It’s that time of the year when the leaves start changing, the air gets cooler, and I get creeped out by works in the collection…
As the Art Collection is an ever-moving beast, on display across the University of Edinburgh’s entire campus and beyond, I am responsible for overseeing the transport of artwork in and out of storage and ensuring locations are kept up to date. However, occasionally I can get spooked out by works that I swear that I’ve never seen before – a fitting topic for today’s Friday the 13th blog!
Meeting the challenges facing ecclesiastical libraries
BETH are a European group of national organisations representing librarians working in theological college, seminary, Church and monastic libraries. Solo librarians or librarians working in small teams are characteristic of their membership, although there is also representation from University libraries. I attended their conference on the theme of Challenges facing ecclesiastical libraries in Cordoba, Spain on 30/9/23-4/10/23, to share a paper about partnership working between Church and University in New College Library.
BETH Conference 2023
What are the challenges for ecclesiastical libraries?
A number of recurring challenges were underlying themes for the conference.
- The decline in religious vocations and in church membership and attendance, which is also linked to a decline in available funding for church libraries, as funding must come from a diminishing church populace.
- The effects of war, military action and other political and social conflicts.
- Delivering professional management of historic collections under both of these circumstances with the particular needs and financial demands of historic and rare collections.
How can ecclesiastical libraries be successful in avoiding crisis and collapse? Read More
How to find your way around the vast portfolio of Digital Research Resources
Guest blog post by Dr André de Araújo Vieira, Research Facilitator – Digital Research Services – University of Edinburgh
The Digital Research Services website helps researchers find resources including components of the Research Data Service.
The new Digital Research Services website will point you to the most suited tools tailored to your research project
Digital Research Services (DRS) has just released new features on their website to assist researchers who are still unsure about which digital resources would be most appropriate for them. The new interactive tool – Resource Finder – highlights the most suitable service(s) for each project. All the users need to do is answer a series of questions. The main purposes of this new functionality are:
- To empower the user to build their own personalized toolkit;
- To give autonomy to the user in finding their way around the large portfolio of digital resources provided by the University;
- To allow the user to understand the breadth and depth of data services available to them.
Beyond helping the navigation of digital research services, DRS also intends to emphasize the importance of adopting best practices throughout the research lifecycle. Getting to know the broad range of available resources, developed with an emphasis on research excellence, is key for making informed decisions, identify the most appropriate tools and by extension have higher chances of meeting funder requirements and maximise research outputs and impact.
The new Resource Finder was released as part of a full DRS Website redevelopment, overall enhancing findability and visibility of digital tools. After an assessment in 2022, DRS intensified efforts to raise awareness of data and computing services across the University, facilitate efficient use of digital resources and to enhance the existing training materials on digital tools. One of the steps taken towards this objective was reviewing the DRS website content, design, and functionalities which led to the Resource Finder.
How does it work?
Once you enter the Resource Finder page, you will find a description of the tool, further user guidance (available under the +More info button) and the DRS research lifecycle. A You will see a list with the name of each phase of the research life cycle and associated questions, as well as guidance text showing where you can interact with the tool. Among the information provided, you will also find an explanatory video on how to use the Resource Finder. There are different ways to navigate the Resource Finder. You can use it by interacting with the colourful wheel or with the drop-down list of phases. When you start answering the questions you will see that tailored resources will appear on your right side, depending on the answers you give. 
You can reset each phase or the full questionnaire at any point. You can also see a summary of the resources that appeared in each phase on “+Related Resources”. If you are sure that one of the services presented will not be relevant to you, you can hide it. Above all the resources, you will be able to select how you want it to be displayed. Finally, above the display options, you will find a button that allows you to copy all the outcomes of your answers, in case you want to send the link to someone.
Give it a try
The Resource Finder is now available to members of the University of Edinburgh community and beyond. Give it a try and let us know your thoughts via the feedback button on the right side. We will always love to hear suggestions for improvement – whether it is for the Resource Finder or any other functionality of the website.
Other new DRS Website features
It is worth to mention that the new DRS website features and functionalities extend beyond the Resource Finder:
-
-
- Enhanced site-wide search and filtering functionality for colleges/schools;
- New pages and updated menu including the addition of News and Updates and About us pages;
- Additional options for the display or resources;
- New grouping of resources based on the type of service (tool or advice);
- Schedule an online meeting functionality.
-
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
My name is Phoebe Kirkland, I am an MSc East Asian Studies student, and for...
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
Presentation My name is Lishan Zou, I am a fourth year History and Politics student....